Bitter Bracket

Postia stiptica

Most often spruce, rarely deciduous stumps, windfalls, snags. Summer, autumn.

Fruiting bodies annual, small, up to 6-8 cm across, semicircular, fan-shaped or of other shape, usually attached to the substrate by a broad side, soft, watery, surface finely shaggy, uneven, wrinkled, warty, cream, pale ochre or faded. Hymenophore white, cream, yellowish. Tubes white, soft, in wet weather exuding droplets of colourless liquid. Pores small, round or angular. Flesh soft, juicy, white, bitter, with a burning taste and an unpleasant smell of rot. Grows in forests and parks on conifers, rarely on deciduous trees. Causes an active reddish (brown) rot of the wood. Very common. An active saprotroph.